Kamen Rider Kaiju: Everlasting Glory
by Corvus no Genmu
Summary: We were called Weapons of War, Soldiers of the Lost... Throughout all our lives we have lived and died for a lost cause. Our world is dead, and our new home is in danger of meeting the same fate. But this time, we're not alone in our new war.
1. 00: Escape into Prophecy

To begin with, this is not, I repeat **_is not_** a rewrite of my earliest work: Kamen Rider Daikaiju: Epic of the Cosmos. It is a redux of it and as such is at best described as being akin to KRD: EoC as Ultimate Marvel is to Marvel Mainstream. A few things will remain the same, others will be changed drastically. Some characters will remain, others have already departed, and still more are making their debut outside conceptual ideas. Some chapters will be introduced by an Author's Note stating the changes made in basic terms as after all, what would the fun be in reading the story if every other chapter was explained for you? With that said, I hope that you enjoy:

* * *

**Kamen Rider Kaiju: Everlasting Glory**

By Corvus no Genmu

00: Escape into Prophecy

The sky above is red as freshly spilled blood, the clouds black as smoke on the horizon where a dark sun began to set. The forests that once reached an age forgotten by all but the trees is a barren wasteland of ash and rotting corpses, the trees serving more as grave markers for the dead. The nearby city, once a utopia unmatched in all the world where towers of steel and glass rose unchallenged to the sky and entire troves of people littered the ever-busy streets was now nothing but ruins as far as the eye could see with great crystalline structures tore through the ground like weeds. There were no people in this city, at least, not the kind that populated it what was nearly a whole lifetime ago…

A sudden explosion of flames lit up the darkness of the evening light as voices deranged in their alien language screamed their death cries to an uncaring god. Several figures appeared through the heavy smoke that spread like thick fog along the ground, all of them racing as though their very lives were on the line. More voices echoed in the twilight, chattering with rage and hatred as a veritable mob stampeded after the armored figures. These creatures, whatever they might have been once before, could at best be described in a single but oh so eloquent word.

Monsters.

"Is it me, or are they a tad more desperate than usual?"

"Why the hell should we care? We should go back and slaughter them all!"

"I agree with the wench. We should—"

"No! No one else is going to die today."

"Wait. Listen."

Silence.

"I don't hear anything…"

"That's just it… Can you detect any of them nearby?"

"Negative. There are no polymorphic life forms within this unit's scanning range."

"Don't suppose they've given up?"

The answer came not from spoken word but through the action as the ground tore itself asunder from an increasing force several miles down below. Magma burst upwards in a thick plume not far away, the lava thick as mud yet as fluid as water. The alien structures that littered the city began to glow and beat to a rhythm of a powerful heartbeat, the ground trembling once more not from a constant tremor but the sound of united footsteps.

"Shit! Teleport us out of here before—"

Whatever was left to be said was cut off as one of the crystalline towers suddenly lit up with burning intensity to its glow with its siblings following close behind. Within seconds, the energies with the crystal structures exploded outwards at the precise moment the teleportation spell was midway through casting, giving unto it a power unmatched in all of history. As the last of the flames died away with naught but a smoldering crater as the grave marker for a city once known as Tokyo, a figure appeared just at the crater's edge, gazing down below with cold, dispassionate eyes.

* * *

The sky was red as blood as it should be with the great and terrible tears across it like fresh wounds made from wicked claws, a black eye that was once the shining sun glaring down at the wretched landscape below. Towers that once stood like trees of transparent glass and unbreakable steel were replaced by heaps of rubble and half-leaning monstrosities that teetered on the edge of oblivion. Cars decorated the streets but unlike the buildings around them, there was no haphazard design in their locations, rather that they appeared as though they had simple been parked as they were, like empty shells on the city streets. In point of fact, that was the most daunting thing about this desolate city, that there wasn't a single person there to see its dying breath.

No one but her.

She was standing in transfixed horror, her eyes wavering like a cornered beast, trying to find something, _anything_, to bring hope back to this terrible place. People lay scattered about her, none having fallen to the ground more that they simply laid themselves down to sleep, too tired to live another dark day, another moonless night. She ran through the crowd of sleeping dead, trying to find at least one person awake, one person to stand up against whatever caused this horror to affect the world.

Her eyes fell upon six figures and a small spark of hope was lit in her heart for though she did not recognize the gathered women, she was well aware of the power in them. The majority shined with the power of the elements themselves but the strongest of the gathered six, a pair too alike to not be kin, shined like miniature suns compared to the others in their midst.

She raced to them, calling to them in the soundless void and choked on the words that could not be heard. The flame of hope had been extinguished by the cold waters of truth. The heroes were dead, turned to breakable stone, forever frozen in their defiant stances against whatever force brought them to an end, the light of their magic but a faint cinder in the void of their souls. Her eyes shot upwards as a terrible storm appeared on the horizon, a fierce gale shooting past her as black tendrils writhed while the storm grew and spread ever closer.

In the soundless city, the sound of a horse's cry was startling, even more so because of its source. Whirling behind her, the young maiden saw a shining star, the only light in this bleak and terrible place. It cried once more, angelic wings spread as equine hooves beat the air, a golden horn shining like a javelin in the abyss. For a moment, she thought this miraculous beast had come to help but no, it was but a figment, vanishing away into the storm as dark chains ensnared its golden light. It held immense power but it was not a power it could use on its own but she saw the faint thread that connected it to the child soldier before it was snapped in two.

She collapsed to her knees, looking back to the approaching nightmare and watched with tears falling from her eyes as the storm reached the city limits at last and with its barest touch, tore whole building asunder with hurricane winds, cars sent flying as though smacked the by a giant unseen hand, the sleeping dead proved to be just as brittle as stone for they had shattered to dust before even that was swallowed by the merciless nothingness.

The ground suddenly shook to the pattern of charging footsteps, monstrously large footsteps. Loud roars shook the air like a primordial symphony and the expanding nightmare paused, silken tendrils hesitating before a multitude of energies flew overhead. Powers beyond mortal comprehension impacted against the void and it twisted in a soundless scream, flinching away from the onslaught that would not end so long as it dared to continue further.

Roars of great beasts echoed once more, a brilliant flash of light shining, and nine armored figures appeared to stand beside the frozen soldiers, the light of their magic returning in a flash as cold stone became warm flesh once more. The nightmare trembled and rose swiftly upwards in a terrible fury, charging forward with greater speed for no longer did these interlopers frighten it into submission. No, they had earned its rage-driven hatred well and would pay the price for it with their lives. The armored warriors raised their weapons high, roaring in challenge to this unspoken decree and raced forward to meet the void headlong, the soldiers a step behind them and weaving their elements in their gloved hands.

Footsteps echoed from behind her and she turned with wide, fearful eyes to see two more warriors approaching her, one dressed in midnight black carrying a vicious scythe in one hand while the other coursed with dark magical might. The other was as white as bleach ivory and carried with her a monk's staff, the rings chiming gently against the other as light magic danced in her other hand. The two stood before her, moving in perfect unison with the other, and looked as though they were scrutinizing her beneath their helms.

A scream of agony started to turn her eyes, but their hands caught her chin and forced her eyes to their own as fire exploded behind her, buildings crashing down like fallen trees. A car went flying past, a tendril of nightmare lashing it further on as a beam of fire sliced it asunder but still the two held their grip and stared deep into her eyes before they spoke as one.

Spoke the Black, "_Never forgive._"

Spoke the White, "_Never condemn._"

"_The Damned._"

"_The Innocent._"

Together spoken as one, "_Always remember…_"

Spoke the Black. "_The bad times…_"

Spoke the White. "_The good times…_"

"_But never dare to forget…_" Together spoken as one.

"_Your defiance._"

* * *

**On the next ride...**

"_The King's Arrival_"


	2. 01: The King's Arrival

_"I can't believe I died for this war."_  
- Private Leonard L. Church

* * *

**Kamen Rider Kaiju: Everlasting Glory**

By Corvus no Genmu

01: The King's Arrival

"They haven't noticed! _They haven't noticed!_ They! Haven't! Noticed!" A unicyclist cackled as it spun past, its arms waving wildly with primal glee. "The people of this city don't notice anything!"

A masked face appeared out of the darkness, yellow fangs gleaming on pale ivory, red eyes upturned with joy. "They don't even realize that they act like dogs!"

Another mask slid next to the first, an opposite in color and expression, a dark red frown with sad amber eyes. "They don't even realize they're raising kids into monkeys."

"This city is full of apes and dogs!" laughed a third, its cheeks puffed and lips tight, obsidian eyes gleaming.

"Even if a circus tent appears," whispered a magician in a crimson cloak that twirled in place to change into a beautiful ballerina who wore a mask of a teddy bear's head with one button eye dangling loose from the cloth. "In the middle of the city right out of the blue." Another small spin and there it was now a man again, standing tall over everything present on stilted legs and a mask shaped like the smiling crescent moon. It started to juggle as it declared with gusto, "They don't notice it at all!"

Dozens of plain faced masks, echoing true human likeness of the dead and gone with eyes staring dully out into space repeatedly asked, "_Why?_" Until the one mask, the once face, that was the most alive in the entire set open her baby-blue eyes and murmured. "_I wonder why?_"

"They're the kind of people that only care about what's happening in their own little lives," answered a bandaged mummy who held a large mask of a fool's grin so that its glowing eyes shined in the darkness of the open mouth.

"So then, even if the whole world collapses at their feet…?" A dwarf balanced atop a dancer's head began only for her platform to finish for her. "Even if a circus tent appears in the middle of their city!"

A balloon given life in the semblance of the human form floated past despite the lack of wind and spoke in a voice drench in helium gases. "The people around here would never notice at all!"

The demented monstrosities that filled the large central stages of the circus tent began to laugh and dance about with abandon born from their joy as more insults of the city and its people was repeated over and over again from one voice to the next.

"Quiet." A voice, harsh and gravely from either excessive use or from ancient age shot through the din like a cannon blast though the word was whispered as was its repeat of, "I said _QUIET_."

The horrific performers silenced, bowing as one toward the monolithic statue of an elephant where an empty platform rested at the end of its upturned trunk, it sharpened tusks jutting past both sides. They vanished like shades, their colors fading first before the lines of their bodies were but a blur in the darkness of the circus tent. Smoke exploded on the platform and blew away to reveal a crone of sickly purple skin, which in itself was heavy with wrinkles. In her bony hands, serving her well as a walking aid, was a tall staff of ivory where a human eye sat in its perch, feathered wings ruffling from the flames that danced above its crimson pupil.

"The time has finally come… Amazon Trio? Are you there?" Though it was a question, there was no doubt that the crone meant it as a demand.

Fire rose in a burning ring to reveal a man of orange locks, long and well kept, in a tight bodysuit of an animal trainer, his whip coiled and ready at his side. Tiger stripes decorated the orange leggings and though he was human in body, there was a hint of fangs in his smile, his pupils fine slits like a feline's own.

"Tigers-Eye present."

Water spun in place to the right to reveal a truly androgynous, a strange blend of man and woman too well balanced to be natural. Unlike its companion, it bore no strangeness of eye or tooth, but the skin of its hands were marked with scales rather like those of a fish. It wore a uniform of blue, big and puffy like bubbles to hide the array of knives, a true weapons-thrower.

"Fish-Eye present!"

A tornado appeared carrying with it a storm of feathers before another man was revealed with shocking pink hair that stood upright and styled in the fashion of flames and combined with the light materials of his clothes, it was rather obvious that he was the fire-breather of the trio. Unlike his companions, he bore no distinct animal quality to his person save perhaps for the intensity of his stare which was on par with that of a bird-of-prey.

"Hawks-Eye present."

These three, so different in shape and distinction and separated by their own individual skills, it was hard to see the similarities that bound them together but if one looked closely enough one would notice the smallest of details. For one, each of the trio bore a pair of tattoos underneath their left eye, two markings like the slashing of a beast's claws. Second, each of them bore a jeweled ornament of some manner upon their foreheads, though in the case of Tigers-Eye, his own was halfway to being hidden beneath his large headband. Lastly, all three bore the same physical trait of slanted ears, pointed and long, too strangely formed to be completely human, but then, whoever said the Amazon Trio was human?

"At your service, Master Zirconia." They bowed as one to the crone, speaking quite formally though none of them held any actual respect for her, but she knew this and didn't matter one bit to her. What worth was their respect compared to their fear?

"He is here, somewhere in this city… The Good One cannot hold his form in this material world, at least… not for long… Without a sanctuary, he will quickly perish." Zirconia tapped her staff, drawing the Trio up from their bow. "So here is my order for you, Amazon Trio: Find those with beautiful dreams!"

"Beautiful dreams, Master Zirconia?" asked Fish-Eye.

"Yes… only by hiding in someone's beautiful dream can he prevent our plans." The Trio looked to one another with some trepidation. This was no small town or meager village, this was a literal utopia with _thousands_ of people and thus thousands of place for the Good One to hide. Zirconia did not share in their belief and her laughter was a cruel mockery of the sound, dray and raspy. "This world is large and the humans are plentiful but only a meager handful can have beautiful dreams… Someone has to have seen him and offered their dream as sanctuary. Go, Amazon Trio! Find the one with the beautiful dreams and bring him back to me!"

* * *

The streets of Juuban were busy as always, and how could it not be? Being a district of Tokyo and virtually within spitting distance of its famous tower, it is a city that was always bustling with activity day or night. This night though was remarkably empty of its usual busy numbers, a strange feeling in the air that tugged at primordial instincts more specifically the instinct that something was stalking in the shadows, a predator hunting for fresh prey. Perhaps it was the constant attacks from youma that made Juuban's citizens more attuned to this feeling but rarely did it ever benefit them in the rare full-scale attacks that few youma dared to try.

Whatever the case, the citizens had little cause for concern thanks in no small part to their Defenders of Love and Justice though it was not denied that a few close calls had been made in the past, more so recently with that awful Snow Queen business that nearly turned the entire planet into one massive block of ice. Little did they realize that a new threat had already arrived that very afternoon at the zenith of the solar eclipse, a threat far more powerful than any force the Sailor Scouts had ever come across but unlike those previous incursions of monsters and evil, another force had entered into the game. In point of fact, one of those forces was walking the city streets this very moment.

The boy was quite tall for his age, having only turned sixteen in the last fall. His clothes were of simple make and blended well with the darkness of the night. His hair was a strange shade of grey, almost charcoal really, and was parted down the middle where a few choice locks were made to stick up like fuzzy spikes brushing back along his head. He was not overly muscular, built rather like a swimmer but by the way he moved, every motion swift and confident, he was at the very least well practiced in the martial arts. The way he carried himself spoke well of the danger one would be in if they dared to incur his wrath. Especially when one looked into his eyes for those orbs were not of common coloration, even for Japan. No, his eyes were like flames, colored in a burning orange that no matter the expression on his face, shone with the intensity of his true emotions.

His name is Eiji Satsuma and he is curious.

'_What is this feeling…?_' His nostrils flared, his burning eyes gaining a faint reddish tint, a faint spark of blue energy flickering in their burning depths. '_It's almost like a fog is slowly encompassing the city, thick and heavy… and that stench is too familiar to my liking…_'

Eiji walked down the lit sidewalks of Juuban's nightlife in silence, discretely scanning the uncommon passerby that walked past. He had noted that for all his time in this nightly walk, he had yet to see anyone travel in the same direction as he and wherever his instincts were leading him, the people of Juuban were doing their best to vacate. His eyes sparked again as a bus came rumbling by and he spared it a quick glance. He spotted that waitress from earlier, Elizabeth he believed her name was, but there in the back was something… out of place. It was a pinprick compared to what he had felt during the eclipse but whatever it was, it wasn't human and by its eyes, it was no meager scavenger but a predator on the hunt.

Fingers clenched tightly, eyes of flame igniting into crimson light, fangs lengthened and bared. '_No. Not in MY territory you're not_'

* * *

"_One!_" A knife-thrower's wall burst forth from beneath the ground behind the stunned girl. "_Two!_" Iron shackles held her arms apart and trapped her legs together, a mockery of divine sacrifice. "_Three!_" She screamed in utter agony as golden light pierced through her chest before a shining mirror framed in fine hues of pinkish-rose and bedecked with a blue bow at its top appeared floating before her now blissfully unconscious form. Her assailant's smile was a tad gleeful, his feline eyes wrinkled with a true predator's gleam.

"So that is a dream mirror." Tigers-Eye laughed as he started to approach his prey. "With it, I'll be able to see into your dreams and see for myself whether they're beautiful or not for the Good One."

"Stop right there!"

More from surprise than actual concern, the Amazon did so, turning to see a pair of warriors the likes of which were more than familiar to the people of Juuban, nay all of Japan in fact. Both of them had hair done up in a pair of ball with two long streams for the older blonde and a pair of flaring tufts for the younger pink-haired girl. They were uniforms more befitting of a school-girl with their sailor-like design but by the tiaras that bedecked their heads, which in themselves were bestowed by the mark of the Moon, they were of royal blood long forgotten. Defenders of Peace and Hope, they are the Soldiers of the Solar System…

"We are Sailor Scouts!" proclaimed the blonde-haired Sailor Moon.

"And we stand for Love and Justice!" Sailor Mini-Moon spoke with the same gusto and her elder counter-part.

"I'm Sailor Moon!"

"And I'm Sailor Mini-Moon!"

"And in the name of the Moon, we shall punish you!" They declared as one.

Tigers-Eye allowed them a bored, half-lidded glare obviously not all that impressed by their appearance or their little speech. "Well, well, well… We seem to have a couple of pumpkins out from the patch this evening." Both girls' faces flared red at the insinuation of their size and the Amazon's smirk grew with their anger. "Come out and take care of these two for me my remless. My automated doll, Karakuriko."

Tigers-Eye's shadow stretched itself forward like a massive black carpet as a symbol rather like that of a eye with long lashes flashed like strobe lights at its head before a humanoid form burst out from the shadow to reveal a female bodied automaton, a doll the likes of which one would find in a circus that still practiced the lesser know arts of entertainment.

"Karakuriko!" chimed the doll-like remless, her head spinning around and around like a demented top.

Sailor Moon took half a step back, wondering how much of this new kind of monster, this remless, was as much a living creature as it was a doll. "Careful," She warned her younger protégé, "that's some crazy monster…"

"Karakuriko, get rid of them!" commanded Tigers-Eye to which the auto-doll answered with a gleeful giggle before breaking herself into pieces that flew through the air as though guided by invisible strings. A leg piece knocked Sailor Moon's feet from under her for the hands to catch her fast by the arms and drag her skyward as Karakuriko's lower torso, now complete with its legs once more, executed a pain bull-like strategy on Sailor Mini-Moon, keeping the younger Scout down on her back.

Sailor Moon gulped nervously at the sight of Karakuriko's head floating up to meet her face-to-face with a decidedly wicked sneer on its face. "Wh-What are you doing?"

A knight's sword popping out from her open mouth was Karakuriko's answer. The sword jutted forward to stab Sailor Moon clean through but she twisted out of the way just in time. Undeterred, Karakuriko tried again and again to stab the Sailor Scout but the blonde was proving to be quite flexible in her attempts to dodge the blade.

Tigers-Eye laughed, obviously enjoying the show. "How long can you dodge?"

Before anything more could be said by the Amazon, a sudden stream of blue colored energy shot forth from the darkness, its trajectory high enough to plow straight through Karakuriko's blade, melting it as it continued on to vanish into the sky. The remless blinked in surprise, her mouth still opened impossibly wide.

"Release the girl." A deep male voice growled with all the ferocity of a caged lion poked one time too many. The speaker emerged slowly from the shadow and into the reflected light of the moon, his ashen armor glistening under the pale light. He stood tall, just an inch or so above six feet and was not too thick on the muscular side despite the charcoal colored portions of his armor, which in itself fit well with the pure obsidian of his leather-like bodysuit. The gauntlets on his arms flowed back in a strange organic, spike-like fashion similar to the scales of some primordial beast and inch-long claws on the fingers accented this all-too well. The toes of his boots were decorated like the talons of a dinosaur, though they only jutted out enough to lightly scrape against the earth.

Along the back of his body armor was a trio of small, leaf-shaped spikes, the biggest being no larger than a child's hand, which fell in rows along his spine his helmet was shaped to resemble the head of some manner of carnivorous dinosaur with the pale blue lens clenched tightly in fanged jaws. He wore no weapon and his pale, ivory belt was empty save for a single device shaped like a more primal version of his helmet and seemed capable of being flipped back much like a cellular phone, but for now, it remained untouched, its eyes a mere smolder of its true power.

"Oh, so another vegetable has sprouted, this really makes my day…" muttered Tigers-Eye. "Well? You gonna introduce yourself or what?"

The masked warrior stood in silence for a long moment before the spines along his back suddenly flashed azure before the same beam of energy as before shot forth from his visor, slamming into Tigers-Eye with enough force to send him flying back into a tree, his whip lashing out at a nearby tree where the mysterious warrior's shadow happened to fall.

"Grrrrrr…" Tigers-Eye slowly rose to his feet to show that he was virtually unhurt by the blast of energy save for the slight burns that adorned his clothes. The masked warrior cocked his head, in surprise or confusion it didn't matter for Tigers-Eye had already made his move. His eyes flashed with magic and his whip, still wrapped tight around the tree but more to the point, the warrior's shadow, glowed in response to its master's command.

"The hell?" The warrior seemed frozen in place, only capable of moving his head and even then, just slightly so. "What sorcery is this?"

"Sorcery indeed. My whip has sewn your shadow to the tree. You can't even move." Tigers-Eye gloated as he sauntered back to the shackled Elizabeth, her mirror still gleaming brightly over her chest. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to look inside a beautiful dream." He grasped the mirror tightly in his hands before shoving his entire head straight through, shocking the girl back to the waking world with a scream of one whose very dreams were being raped.

"No, Elizabeth!" Sailor Moon struggled to break the remless' grip upon her to no avail.

The warrior's spines crackled with energy once more, building with increasing intensity when Tigers-Eye suddenly pulled back with a regretful sigh. "Too bad… It is a beautiful dream but he isn't in there… I guess I have no choice." He looked down at Elizabeth's face, the poor girl having passed out from the strain of Tigers-Eye's explorations. "I do feel sorry for you, but everyone with beautiful dreams must be eradicated so he doesn't escape into them." Tigers-Eye snapped his fingers. "Karakuriko, get rid of them all."

"Glad to be of service!" chirped the auto-doll remless, her head floating back up towards Sailor Moon. Below, her torso suddenly sprouted an another arm from its shadowed depths, an arm with a literal handful of sharp metallic claws to shred Sailor Mini-Moon's face to ribbons. At the moment, the masked warrior was but a forgotten nuisance and would be taken care of at the remless' leisure along with the girls.

That would be her undoing.

'_At this rate, all of us…_' Sailor Mini-Moon pushed with all her might against the auto-doll's hand. '_Please… can't somebody… help us…?_'

There was a sound not unlike the bells of a church before a brilliant corona of light shined above them all. Beams of this golden light shined down like living things, sending the pieces of Karakuriko flying away and releasing the Sailor Scouts from her grasp. A horse's neigh was heard from on high as the orb of light peeled itself back in the form of shining wings as a brilliant horned stallion stood proudly in the air above.

"It's _HIM_!" cried Tigers-Eye in shock. "The Good One, Pegasus!"

"What…?" Sailor Moon slowly rose to her feet, a little wobbly from the fall to the ground. Thankfully she was more than used to falling on her behind, a fact a certain miko simply _would not_ let go, and the two yard fall was little more than a nuisance really. Sailor Mini-Moon scrambled over to her just in time as the winged horse, Pegasus, landed before them, his golden horn shining brightly still. He inclined his head and the light of his power engulfed the two Sailor Scouts and changed them in a way both thought impossible, more so in the case of the younger who had never before experienced such a power.

A _Super_ power.

The pieces of Karakuriko drew back together as she charged forward on all fours like an enraged spider towards the two Super Sailors who both gasped in surprise when, with another equine gesture from Pegasus, a small glass-blown kaleidoscope appeared before Super Sailor Moon. The stunned blonde reached out and grasped the weapon in her gloved hands as its magic welled inside her.

'_This is… I feel a mysterious power building up all over my body…_' Just as Karakuriko was with striking distance, Super Sailor Moon suddenly kneeled down on one knee, the kaleidoscope glowing brightly with lunar energy that she shot forward with a straight thrust of her arm. An effect like a lens of a kaleidoscope flashed through the air and impacted against the remless.

"STAGE OUT!" Was her final cry before Karakuriko shattered into pieces and disappeared save for her shadow. The eye-like symbol on her shadow's head faded out with a puff of smoke and, with it, the last of Karakuriko.

"This isn't good…" Tigers-Eye back-flipped into a burning ring of fire that appeared in the air above him and disappeared into the void, the flames snuffing out in a cloud of acrid, black smoke. With his retreat, the table holding Elizabeth disappeared and her dream mirror flickered out of sight, safe in the confines of her soul once more. She collapsed to the ground in a dead faint as the masked warrior looked on in silence, his body free of the spell cast upon his shadow. His gaze wondered to the two Super Sailors who in turn were staring in wonder at the winged horse that had, for whatever reason, bestowed them the power they needed.

"How beautiful…" whispered Super Sailor Moon as she reached out to touch Pegasus but he vanished in an explosion of dream dust and with his departure, so too was their enhanced power gone, "He vanished… Ah! We're back to the way we were!"

The masked warrior sighed, feeling a strange nostalgia at the blonde's antics before he turned and started to walk away.

"Hey wait!" He paused and glanced back over his shoulder to see the younger girl, Sailor Mini Moon standing with a faint tremble in her shoulders beside her counterpart who was now kneeling next to the unconscious Elizabeth to check over the girl. "Uh… who _are_ you…?" She glanced uneasily at the saurian qualities of his armor. "_What_ are you…?"

He stared at her in silence for a long moment. "I am called Gojira…" He answered, turning away from them. "As for what I am… I have been called a Weapon of War, a Soldier of the Lost, King of the Damned, and other such nonsense… but I prefer to label myself simply as… a Kamen Rider…"

And he was gone into the night.

* * *

The night was the hours of sleep for most men, the darkness in the modern age holding little of its primordial fear in the age of science, where man's artificial light drove back the shadows with but a simple flip of a switch. Few that were awake had to keep themselves awake by whatever means they could use or create. The man sitting alone in the foyer of the largest house on the street, a mansion some would say, was indeed awake but contrary to popular opinion, it was due more to his nature than anything else.

He was dressed for bed with a red robe tied over the dark grays of his pajamas, his wine-colored locks brushed back from his eyes and falling to the lower nape of his neck. By his build, both in his size and his facial structure, he was not of the Orient but rather that he came from the lands of the West, particularly the lands of the Norse. Strange to find a foreigner so far from home but in this house he was just one of many strange visitors to this city, this country… He is old, well into his late twenties at best but he seemed almost older if only by the way he carried himself, the tiredness of experience.

He leaned forward in his chair, his elbows coming to rest atop his knees with his fingers interlocked before his face, which in itself was set with a very deep frown. At his side was a glass filled halfway with some manner of drink, a deep red liquid that seemed to absorb what little light shined in the darkened room. Slightly pointed ears twitched and amber eyes opened slowly, setting their gaze upon the door expectantly.

His name is Bastian Richardson and he is waiting.

A key slid into place, buttons pressed in their necessary sequence, the faint hum of electricity and various mechanics working their wonders as they scanned, analyzed, and accepted the person trying to gain entry. Locks came undone, security measures deactivating one at a time before the door opened and a familiar figure entered into the foyer.

"Eiji." The charcoal-haired youth paused, the doorknob still clutched in his hand.

"Bastian." He answered back, shutting the door carefully lest he wake anyone else. The last thing he needed was one of the others giving him a hard time. He supposed he was lucky that it was Bastian who remained waiting for him to return from his… walk…

The older man gestured at the chair beside him, this one with a glass of ice water sitting in wait. Eiji didn't bother speaking and took a seat before cradling the cup in his hands, watching the condensation forming on the smooth surface of the glass.

Bastian regarded his own glass with one hand, the other idly scratching at the armrest of his chair. "I would have you explain to me what you thought you were doing if I thought I'd actually get anything out of you… So I'll ask you simply…" Amber eyes met crimson, a shift from the voice of an old man to a young one driven to the edge of his rope. "Are you out of yer bloomin' _mind?_"

"It was a mistake. One I will not make again." Eiji shot back, glare-for-glare. "You know that nothing for of their power could affect me for long and even that was tenuous at best."

"One mistake is enough!" snapped Bastian, his voice quiet despite the military gruffness it adopted. "We are not dealing with familiar enemies here."

"Does it matter?" asked Eiji. "You know the others and I are not going to sit back and let a bunch of untrained children try and save the world." He sighed, sagging in his chair. "Not that it did much good to be trained did it, Old Bat?"

Bastian sighed, ignoring the barb, small as it was and spoke like family. "Go to bed, Eiji. You have school in the morning." He waited until the boy was just near the stairs before he spoke again. "And from what Morisato has told me, a lunch-time rendezvous with an interesting young lady as well."

Eiji's hand nearly tore the railing asunder, his face flushed red as he quickly beat a hasty retreat to his room, with thoughts of swift and painful vengeance in mind.

Remaining in his chair, Bastian allowed himself a small smile of victory; it has been a long time since he had seen Eiji so embarrassed. "An interesting girl indeed… this Makoto Kino…"

* * *

The sun was falling though not far from its zenith in the mid-day sky, but it did little to help the poor pony-tailed blonde that was struggling to recall just _where_ precisely the previous night's battle took place. "It was… here…?" Serena glanced about, obviously hesitant in her confirmation.

"There doesn't seem to be any clues left behind…" Ami stated, her Mercury computer in hand scanning the area for any kind of evidence to the new forces, good and evil, that had invaded Juuban once more.

"A new enemy… a mysterious Pegasus… and some warrior in black armor…?" Rei's recap reflected her doubt quite well.

"Rini, you _really_ don't know anything about that Pegasus?" asked Serena. The young pinkette didn't answer right away, the memory of her dream-time visitation by the winged equine in question replaying in her mind and the promise she had made to him when he had begged for their connection…

"No… I don't know…"

To keep his secret, no matter the cost…

* * *

"_One!_" A knife-thrower's wall burst forth from beneath the ground behind the stunned girl. "_Two!_" Iron shackles held her arms apart and trapped her legs together, a mockery of divine sacrifice. "_Three!_" She screamed in utter agony as golden light pierced through her chest before a shining mirror framed in fine hues of pinkish-rose and bedecked with a blue bow at its top appeared floating before her barely conscious form. Her assailant's smile was a tad gleeful, his feline eyes wrinkled with a true predator's gleam.

"Hold it right there!" Tigers-Eye paused and turned in surprise to see a very familiar, and quite unwanted face. Sailor Mini-Moon spoke with the reproach of an adult born of practice in dealing with the younger incarnation of her mother. "To attack a maiden by using her worries to approach her! You're pretty cheap, though you are handsome! For love and justice, a pretty soldier in a sailor suit! Sailor Mini-Moon! And in the name of the Future Moon, I shall punish you!"

Tigers-Eye looked far from impressed. If anything he looked downright bored with the young Senshi-in-training. "It's the mini-pumpkin from the other day…" He cracked his whip upon the ground, summoning another one of his servants, his shadow stretching forward as the sigil of the Dead Moon shined at its head. "Come here my remless… Beast-Tamer, Danko!"

The shadow quivered and twisted upwards before melting away into a young, almost elfish woman with skin of pure ivory dressed more for the art of ballet dancing than the profession of beast tamer save for the large whip in her hand. Danko slowly relaxed her grip, allowing the length of whip to fall to the ground, her hand tightening at its end, a deranged smile alighting on her face that made Sailor Mini-Moon take a step back in fear before outright running for her life as the remless charged after her, whip lashing.

Tigers-Eye watched the chase in pleased silence before turning his attention back towards Rita. "Now… let's have a look at that beautiful dream shall we?"

"No! _Please!_ Don't look at it!" she begged but Tigers-Eye ignored her as he shoved his head inside of her dream mirror to which she screamed in agony as he raped her dreams. "_Noooo!_" She collapsed into unconsciousness the moment a resigned Tigers-Eye pulled his head free from her dream mirror.

"A good dream… but he's nowhere inside it!" Tigers-Eye glanced back to see that his remless had succeeded in at least subduing Sailor Mini-Moon and had her pinned to the ground with one foot pushing hard upon the girl's back. "Danko, it would be trouble if this girl's dream was used by Him in the future. Get rid of them both!"

"I won't let you do that!"

"Sailor Moon!"

Tigers-Eye ignored her opening speech as disgruntle soon became disgust on his features. "Gross… They're pumpkins all over the place!"

Interrupted, and feeling a little more surprised than annoyed really, Sailor Moon looked beside her and saw the rest of the Inner Senshi. "When did you guys get here…?"

"We were waiting for you at Crown, but when you didn't show up…" said a slightly peeved Sailor Mars.

"We thought that this was the only place you could be." Sailor Mercury said, shrugging.

"Besides, we got a little worried about Rita ourselves," admitted Sailor Jupiter.

"I hate girl talk!" growled Tigers-Eye, looking rather put-out by the conversation the Scouts were having. "Especially when they're ignoring me!" He lashed his whip, drawing the attention of his remless. "Get rid of them, Danko!"

The tamer remless smiled mischievously before she lashed her whip forward, sending the Scouts scattering for cover. Undeterred, Danko lashed her whip back, holding it tightly in both hands as she goaded at the Scouts. "Come on! You have to greet the customers well!"

Peeved would be a nice way of putting Sailor Mars' feelings towards the remless' attitude as she stood to the fore to unleash her most powerful attack. "_Burning Mandala!_" The eight symbols of Buddha appeared behind her and condensed themselves into a violent burning ball of fire that launched from her cupped hands in the form of eight blazing rings.

Danko twirled in place, her whip flashing forward like a serpent through the rings and catching them all in its coils. Twisting the whip high above her head, the remless laughed at the startled expressions of the Sailor Scouts which soon turned into fear as the celestial fire rings where launched straight back at them. "Jump the flaming hoops!" crowed Danko as the Scouts dodged the returned attack while the remless' master laughed in the background.

"Yes, Danko! Keep up the show!" laughed Tigers-Eye. "In fact, show me something more entertaining than this!"

"As you wish!" Danko laughed as she kicked Sailor Mini-Moon towards the Sailor Scouts. "Why don't you all perform together now?" The whip lashed again, dangerously close to the rear (in more ways than one) and the remless called out her next trick, "A standard act, the French cancan! Dance, dance, _DANCE!_"

The sound of a motorcycle's engine shot through the air like the roar of an angered beast shortly before the very vehicle in question launched itself from the top of the nearby hill and came down like a furious meteor as neon blue flames shot from the exhaust ports on either of the other obsidian bike. A blast of energy was launched from the visor of its Rider, melting a hole in the chain-link fence big enough for him and his motorbike to pass through and slam into the shocked Danko. The remless was sent flying backwards by the blow as the motorcycle skidded to a halt. All-in-all, the bike appeared to be an almost futuristic version of the Suzuki Katana brand of motorcycle as it should be really.

After all, the GSXF-K6 wouldn't be on the market for another ten years… but it wasn't really the tripped-up motorcycle from the future that had everyone's attention, it was its Rider.

"Gojira!" Sailors Moon and Mini-Moon gasped in shock. The Kamen Rider didn't acknowledge the girls behind him, his sights firmly locked onto Tigers-Eye.

"Enough games. Release the girl or die where you stand." Gojira climbed off his bike and slowly strode forward as his dorsal spines alit themselves with energy, his visor gleaming from the build-up of power.

"The weed now? Where do all of these weirdoes keep coming from?" Tigers-Eye asked himself in frustration.

"I will not repeat myself." Gojira's hand reached down to the device that served as a buckle on his belt and gripped it tightly. "Advent." He twisted the Spirit Rizer completely around as the device echoed his command.

"_ADVENT._" There was a sudden surge of power as Gojira's dorsal spines lengthened into a vaguely crystalline shape but otherwise appeared no different. At least… to the eyes of the Sailor Scouts. Tigers-Eye's own were narrowed, trying to catch a glimpse of… _something_… that was hovering over Gojira's body like some sort of ghost but for whatever reason he couldn't quite catch it. "_KING._"

The same could not be said for Danko.

For all the reasons that the human Sailor Scouts, and the near-human Tigers-Eye, couldn't see it, none of them could be applied to her and she saw precisely what it was that Gojira had done. Standing on two muscular legs, barely ten feet tall at the shoulder, was a spectral beast built for dominance of land and sea, a raw primordial fury flashing in its otherwise empty orbs. It was too defined in texture to be a mere illusion, but too translucent, too ghostly, to be a mere hologram. The dinosaurian's lips pulled back in a vicious grin, a mimic of the motions of its master.

Gojira made to move forward but stopped as Danko's whip lashed at his feet. He could see her shivering; her eyes wide and afraid as she stared up at the Spectral System hovering over him, mimicking his every motion. He turned his back completely to Tigers-Eye to face the frightened remless before charging forward with a battle-cry that echoed with the sound of a beast's roar. Footprints of a saurian impacted heavily into the earth, shaking it with startling force as Gojira swiped at Danko though a good distance separated him from his physical reach.

The arm of the Spectral System slashed across Danko, knocking her to the ground and another tossed her skyward. Gojira twisted tightly in a full circle, a spectral tail slamming into the beast-tamer remless far and away from the startled spectators whose own eyes saw Gojira's attacks being entirely telekinetic in nature rather than the truth.

Calmly walking over to the downed, the Rider decided that now was perhaps a good time for a mild lesson in true warfare. He reached down and through the Spectral System, lifted the barely conscious Danko high into the air. Gojira planted his feet firmly in the ground, the elongated spines sparkling with enhanced power as the Spectral System's mouth opened wide to match the glaring intensity of the Rider's visor.

"_Atomic Fire!_" A thick beam of radiation concentrated to such a high degree as to be seen in the visible spectrum burst from Gojira's visor and plowed its way up into the sky. When the beam's energy faded out of sight, Gojira released his grip on Danko's headless body, watching in mild interest as it molded back into the form of non-headless shadow with an arcane symbol flashing at its brow.

Eyes widening beneath his helmet, Gojira whirled to see Tigers-Eye making a hasty, but entirely tactical, retreat through one of his fire-rings. The Kamen Rider watched as the ring vanished in a burst of black smoke before the now blissfully unconscious Rita fell to the ground with her mirror returned to her through the disappearance of the table that had shackled her.

With an almost regretful sounding sigh, Gojira reached down and twisted the Spirit Rizer back into place, deactivating the Spectral System above him and returning his dorsal spines back to their smaller, almost leaf-like, shape. He stole a glance back at Rita and saw that Sailor Mercury was already kneeled down beside the girl, her fingers tapping away at her miniature laptop. Glad that someone was capable of actually checking to see if the girl was alright, he started towards his K-Rider only to find his path blocked by the remaining Sailor Senshi.

"You're not going anywhere just yet," said Sailor Jupiter, firmly. "We have questions."

"Questions you've no right to ask." Gojira responded back in kind. "I have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with rookie soldiers."

"Hey, we're not rookies pal!" exclaimed Sailor Mars, visibly angry at Gojira's frank dismissal of them and their skills.

"By all accounts you shouldn't be," He agreed, surprising her into silence but sparked her ire anew as he continued, "and yet here I've had to intervene not once but _twice_ in your attempts at saving innocent lives. I've yet to see what makes you capable enough to handle this new enemy of yours."

"So he's not your enemy then?" asked Sailor Venus, glaring menacingly at Gojira though it looked more cute than menacing really. "Are you a third groupie?"

"Party, Venus…" Sailor Jupiter muttered under her breath.

Gojira paused to consider his words. "I know nothing of their intentions or the reason behind their actions. All I know is that… _thing_… ordered his victims to be killed. I hold no tolerance for inhuman murderers like that thing. As for you Sailor Scouts… I have seen for myself that you are all strong enough to be capable of holding your own against these… remless… should you take the time to actually _train_ to be something more than girls playing pretend as Soldiers."

"We're not playing!" yelled Sailor Mini-Moon. "We're true Soldiers of Love and Justice! I've fought my share of bad-guys and I've beaten them!" Left unsaid was the fact that she often had help in said victories.

Gojira looked down into her eyes in silence for a long moment before he suddenly asked, "Have you ever had to kill anyone?"

"Wh-What?"

"Do you not remember how I introduce myself? '_I have been called a Weapon of War, a Soldier of the Lost, King of the Damned_'. Did you think I was spouting poetic nonsense?" He snorted derisively at the very idea. He raised his right hand, claws raised to the sky. "With this hand, I have condemned and with this hand I have killed. What have you ever done? So you've helped to slay a monster or two, well that's good for you, but you've never had to kill something that wasn't born a monster have you?

"An innocent life torn asunder and twisted into a cruel mockery of what it once was by Fate's cruel hands or perhaps even by their own actions. An innocence that can never be reclaimed because it is already too late for them to save themselves. All you can do is grant them mercy by killing the monster and letting the poor soul beneath to rest. When you have killed innocent people to slay the monsters that they had become, only then can you truly call yourself a Soldier."

Gojira shrugged past the stunned Sailor Scouts, none of them raising a hand to stop him as he placed himself astride his K-Rider. The engine roared to life and settled into a pleasant purr before Gojira allowed one last piece of advice to the Senshi. "You call yourself Soldiers of Love and Justice, but you are not as familiar with War as I. While I admire your tenacity, there will come a time when you will have to choose between those that can and can't be saved. You can pray all you like for that time to never come but it will do you no good.

"War is always inevitable."

With a roar of his K-Rider, Gojira took off not bothering to look back despite how much he wanted to. He knew not how or why but his instincts were telling him that somehow, in some way or another, he recognized them all on a certain level but there was only one amongst them that stood out from the others in a way that made him feel both equally proud and equally foolish. But for the life of him, Gojira could not figure out why it was Sailor Jupiter that made him feel this way.

* * *

**On the next ride...**

"_The Samurai's Flight_"


	3. 02: The Sword's Flight

Well, I think it's easy to spot the first change I made neh? Why a change of name you might ask? Well, originally, I just picked names that I happened to know and/or like for the majority of the Kamen Riders Daikaiju but for the redux, I purposely changed their last names to connect in some way to their "monster heritage" that is the actors and/or the creators of the kaiju in question but for the most part, everyone's kept their first names the same. The next change was the removal of Gojira's G-Force Cannon. I did this primarily because I was never satisfied with it in the beginning, but when I first wrote KRD: EoC, I never once considered the application of using the visor as a sort of focusing lens similar, but nothing like, the way Cyclops uses his optic blasts.

As for the "Advent System", it operates on a similar fashion to Kamen Rider Kabuto's "Cast-Off" and Ryuki's "Advent Card". It is similar to "Cast Off" in that the Rider's gain a mild alteration to their armor and a huge power boost, obvious in some cases and less so in others, whilst simultaneously creating a holographic replica of the kaiju the Rider possesses similar to Ryuki's "Advent". These holograms, known as the "Spectral System", only mimic the motions of the Rider and can be used as an extension of themselves and cannot be seen by _human_ eyes, at least not without some form of aid be it mechanical or magical in origin.

* * *

_"It was to create a world of peace, not to win positions or power, that we raised our swords and killed."_  
-Kenshin Himura

* * *

**Kamen Rider Kaiju: Everlasting Glory**

By Corvus no Genmu

02: The Sword's Flight

Though only late in the afternoon and yet even now Juuban's most popular café, the Crown Station, conveniently located near the Crown Arcade, was quite full with its daily tenants of teenagers and the occasional adult spread about in their various corners. Some are partaking in the café's delicious cakes and other sweet and sugary treats, others are quenching their thirst with a glass of colorful concoctions made up from fruits local and tropical. It cannot be denied that most are there for food or drink, perhaps even as a momentary shelter from the rain before continuing on with their day, but there are few there simply because there's nowhere else they _want_ to be.

Sitting in one of the corner booths is one such youth, a young man of sixteen years sat cradling a cup of hot coffee in his hands. He was tall for his age, even taller than his friend Eiji by a few good inches, and combining that with his red hair tied in a loose ponytail down his back, he made for an odd sight amongst the citizens of Juuban, who would think of him as mixed blood but no, the hair and his eyes, a startling shade of blue that matched the hue of a cloudless sky, were a common trait in the men of his family since the time of his great-great-grandfather. Though his posture was relaxed and his coffee still full from its recent refill, there was a fierce scowl on his face that promised in no uncertain terms that any who dared to impose themselves upon him would be in a world of hurt for their troubles.

His name is Takuya Nakajima and he is annoyed.

He twitched, another grimace passing through his spine as the incessant conversation continued on behind him via a group of girls he was well and truly beginning to hate with passion reserved only to the select few who could actually stand up to him, physically and verbally.

"So you stomped out of your house after that?" asked Rei Hino, sounding rather disbelieving of the antics of her meatball-haired friend, "And over something as petty as a slice of lemon pie?" Serena's recount of the fight with her mother, if one could even deign to really call it as such, was just another sad example of how childish she could be. "It's just like you, Serena…"

"That's not it!" exclaimed Serena Tsukino. "It's not the first time that Rini's taken stuff that I've saved for later. Like my chunky strawberry chocolate, over-delicious rice crackers… and the chocolate crunch cookies!"

"They're all the same kind of food I notice." Mina Aino muttered to herself with a drop of sweat falling past her brow.

Rei sighed and closed her eyes. "I'm so disgusted I don't know what to say…"

"They say grudges involving food are really scary…" said Makoto Kino, silently wishing her boyfriend was around. He always seemed to have a wise word to share when the situation called for it, though such words were spoken first by his father, the value was the same. Unfortunately, he wasn't here and so she and her friends were now about to deal with another tear-fest.

"But Mama always favors Rini… She thinks Rini is more precious than I am, I'm sure of it!" And with that, Serena began to bawl, which served as the final straw for Takuya.

"Oh what fresh Hell is this?" He slammed his cup down on the table, now completely drained of the coffee inside. He turned and glared over the startled shoulders of Ami and Mina, his piercing blue eyes holding a frightened Serena in place like a hawk would a mouse. "Look, I don't know what kinds of head injuries you've attained to get such a ridiculous idea in your head but damn it, I'll give you a new one if you don't get that shit out of there!"

Ignoring the glares he was now receiving from the other girls for his callus words, Takuya placed some money down by his cup and rose from his seat. He turned and met Serena's eyes again. "I can't claim that every mother out there is as good as she ought to be, but damn it, your own is a mother of _three_ idiot kids! By all means, grant her sainthood right here and now seeing as she's got enough patience and love to deal with all of you. I used to hate my little sister just like you because of the same reasons.

"She treated her like a glass statue and I hated them both for it until I got some actual sense knocked into me. My sister was less than half my age, so of course my mother would treat her different. Just because I was older didn't mean I wasn't anything less than her son, just as your aren't anything less than your mother's daughter. Your mother's going to treat all of you differently because each of you need to be."

Takuya blinked and shuddered, looking absolutely disgusted with himself. "Ah damn it all to Hell, I'm started to sound like Satsuma-teme. Now I need to go and find a place that sells alcohol to minors. Thank you all so much." Without another word, Takuya turned away from the group of surprised girls and stalked out of the café and into the storm without a care for the rain. The girls sat in stunned silence for the longest time until it was at last interrupted in the most unexpected way.

"He might be a sharp-tongued jerk… but you got to admit, he's kind of cute."

"Mina…"

* * *

The Hikawa Shrine of Cherry Hill is not the only temple in Tokyo but it is the most famous in its district of Juuban though perhaps for not all the right reasons. Though not by any means an officially sanctioned place of such interest, many of Juuban's citizens recognized the shrine for its frequent visitation of the Sailor Scouts, particularly so whenever a monster was attacking either the temple or someplace nearby. Many actually thought the temple as a sort of meeting place, perhaps even a command center, for the Senshi but they brushed that idea aside whenever it arose. The only visitors that truly frequented the temple, at least more so than the Senshi admirers, were true practitioners of Shinto and the occasional group of girls wanting a bit of good fortune through the Hikawa Shrine's talismans and charms.

Because of this, few who dared to try and apply for apprenticeship at the shrine were welcomed and many were rebuked by the shrine's head priest, which in itself was a blessing as the old man might well still have some spark in him, it was nothing compared to the inferno of his granddaughter. However, there was indeed one new apprentice to the shrine sweeping away the errant leaves on the temple grounds.

He was a young man well into his eighteenth year and yet, he seemed far older by the way he carried himself. His hair, black with only a slight sheen of green whenever the light touched it just right, was brushed back from his face though a couple strands fell to frame his green eyes. Though the sleeves of his haori covered his arms, he wore bandanges over them both and favored his right one the most, never grabbing anything with it and always being mindful of how tightly he gripped something with it.

His name is Shiro Fukuzawa and he is watching.

Though he knew he shouldn't be so rude as to be eavesdropping as he was, but he couldn't help listening about the troubles described by the young girl to his Lady Priestess and her group of friends.

"Only three months left to live? That's rather dramatic for a beginning." Serena noted, not really getting the seriousness of the situation.

"It sounds like a soap opera." Rei stated, her rare distrust in men rearing its head.

"But… who is this guy?" asked Ami. Naru looked uncomfortably at the ground.

"I'm not really sure…"

Shiro winced at that, but kept his distance for now. The girl was young still, she didn't know of the cruelty in the world or the evil that walked it. She was familiar with the monsters, who in Juuban wasn't really, but those monsters had the decency to be true in form and intent, they had little need for masks as humans often do.

"And?" Makoto raised an eyebrow at the smaller girl's discomfort. "You did tell him that you won't be his girlfriend, right?" Nursing skills aside, Makoto could not picture anyone dumping their significant other for someone who only wanted a relationship to make their last days at least somewhat bearable. It wasn't fair to any of the parties involved, a sentiment that she'd find that her own boyfriend agreed on.

"But… actually…"

"You didn't!" exclaimed Makoto.

If anything, Naru looked even more torn up than before. "Well…"

"But what are you going to do with Gurio?" asked Mina.

"I did tell him that I already had a boyfriend… But he said it would only be for three months…"

"Naru, love and sympathy are two different things." Rei said.

"I am aware of that but I… I just felt so sorry for him and I couldn't just say no."

Shiro cleared his throat, drawing the girls' attention to him. "If I may…?" He looked to Rei who seemed embarrassed that he felt he had to ask her permission to speak, especially considering she was dressed in casual wear, and quickly gave it. "Miss Naru, such a relationship can never possibly work. Have you even considered the idea that this man might be lying to you or that, if he is being honest, that he will want you there beside him when he dies?" Naru shook her head, looking ready to cry at any moment. Shiro sighed, regretting what he had to say but he had to drive the point home.

"You would be there, at his bedside as he draws his last breath, when the muscles in his hand relax and his grip on your own falls with him into oblivion? When his skin once warm and flushed with life will became pale and cold to the touch? Can you really do that? Can you stand by a man as he dies with false love in your heart?" His eyes held her fast, refusing to let her go. "To watch someone die… is something I wouldn't wish on anyone… because when that someone dies… so does a piece of you that you can _never_ get back."

"I think… I'm going to go home now… Bye!" Without so much as a backward glance, Naru ran for the temple stairs and soon disappeared from sight.

Shiro watched her go with a disappointed frown even as the remaining girls, well five of them at least, glared at him for the cruelty they perceived in his words. "You may hate me for my words, but it doesn't make them any less true. That kind of situation is one in which no one can escape with their heart intact. No matter the choices made, there will be heartbreak involved."

"You sound like you know from experience." Rei said, her eyebrow raised in suspicion, a spark of something like jealousy in her amethyst eyes.

He raised an eyebrow in return, a brief spark of light flashing through his eyes, Seeing more than human eyes could. It was personal, too personal for details but… he could allow some of his history. After all, he wasn't the only injured party. "My heart has been broken, but the circumstances were different than this. It was… unexpected…"

"What was?" asked Mina.

"… It's not just my tale to tell. Should I gain permission for it, I will tell you of it but as it stands, I cannot say anything more than this: my wounds no longer bleed." With nothing more to say, Shiro resumed his sweeping of the temple grounds stopping only long enough to watch the girls give chase after Naru though one did hesitate in following the others. He watched as Rei was the last to disappear down the temple stairs, his eyes flaring with sudden burning intensity like the sacred fires she invoked guidance from.

"Hmm… so that's how it is…" He blinked and the light was gone from his eyes but not the pain in them though there was now a spark of pride. "How very interesting…"

* * *

"Hey, I'm walking here, asshole!" Takuya roared after the sobbing waste of manhood that had all but shoved him onto the street as he ran past like a depressed bull. The irate redhead huffed and continued on his way, grumbling as he went. "Freaking crybabies… The fool probably got dumped… of course that's actually considering the idea that a four-eyed little twit could actually get a girl in the first place…" Sad as it was, this was Takuya in a _good_ mood. If he were in a bad mood, his mutterings would be composed almost entirely of cussing of the foulest sort.

"Man, I've been itching for something to actually _do_ around here! I like the rest but damn it, I'm going to get rusty if I don't have a decent fight or something!" He glanced skyward. "Is that too much to ask for some kind of excitement here?"

Takuya suddenly stopped, his eyes narrowed as he spotted something, a strange distortion in the air. '_The hell was that?_' It was almost as though something had arrived and, by its arrival, caused a strange wind to fly that normal eyes could never see. The winds scuttled past like disturbed insects, tiny and afraid. Takuya's eyes tracked the trail of the disturbance while a feral smile began to grow on his face, his eyes brightening, his pupils almost thinning like a cat's. "Let that crazy wench Tarimu keep on the vigil, I'm through playing watchman! This monster is _mine_!"

* * *

"Juggle, juggle, I _love_ to juggle!" Left unsaid was that Tigers-Eye's newest remless, the juggler Otedamako, happened to have a penchant towards _bladed_ objects rather than the balls she was currently tossing at Sailor Moon, who was frantic to keep them from touching the ground. If one asked her after the battle why she felt the need to keep up the game of juggling, she'd say she thought it mighty suspicious that a monster like Otedamako was using ordinary juggling balls and thus concluded something had to be up with them.

"I don't want these!" Sailor Moon, instead of tossing them back to Otedamako, turned to her younger counterpart and began to toss the balls to her, much to the pink-haired Senshi's dismay.

"Ah! Stop it!"

As entertaining as it was to watch them fumbling about with it, the Moon Duo were not experts in the art of coordination and its associates, so they were quick to drop the balls to the ground which exploded with enough force to send them flying back but otherwise left them unscathed. Otedamako giggled and started tossing flaming bowling pins at the two Senshi who screamed bloody murder as they did everything they could to dodge the fiery projectiles that seemed to have no end as they flew from the juggler's hands.

"This is _nuts!_" screamed Sailor Moon, the end of her ponytails singing from another near miss.

"What are we going to do… we need help…" whispered Sailor Mini-Moon.

Something echoed on the horizon, the sound of the sound barrier being shattered before someone suddenly appeared between the Senshi and the remless. The girls barely had time to scream before the wind caught up with the mysterious figure and knocked them flat on the faces and rolling forward. Tigers-Eye screamed as the flaming pins came dangerously close to him and dove to the ground like a frightened rabbit. He growled low in his throat and rose to his feet to glare at the interloper only to pale at a strangely familiar sight for standing before him was another, brand new Kamen Rider.

He stood taller than Gojira by at least a foot and his bodysuit was, for the most part, colored in dull shades of brown, much like most of the armor along the Rider's back and arms though the chest and front of the legs were more heavily fortified with goldenrod color portions. At one side of his wrists was a sharp point that seemed more decorative than useful at the moment and strapped to his belt were a pair of sword hilts minus the blades with the hilts resembling the neck and heads of ancient pterosaurs.

His faceplate was a dark blue and divided into two by the 'beak' of the pterosaur that divided it and flowed back to form a V-shaped crest the curled back like horns atop the Rider's head. Like Gojira before him, his gauntlets and boots bore claws, though his resembled an avian's rather than a terrestrial. His Spirit Rizer, which also served as a belt buckle, was designed in the shape of the folded wings of a pterosaur. With the Rider facing him, Tigers-Eye never saw the strange ports that marked the Rider's upper back not unlike those found on a jet engine.

"Wh-Who the _hell_ are you?" screamed Tigers-Eye.

The Rider inclined his head, crossing his arms across his chest with an almost cheeky air as he regarded the question. "I've been called a lot of things really… Samurai of the Sky, the Winged Sword… By my comrades, I am called Rodan but by my enemies…" He took both hilts in hand, the heads aimed behind him as the beaks split open in a soundless scream as fire condensed into molten red swords with blades cut like those like a katana though the sharpened edge was finely serrated beyond what human eyes could see.

"I am their demise!" The boosters on his back exploded with power though he did not seem to move. The boom of the sound barrier being shattered was like an explosive blast and knocked the Moon Duo clean off their feet while the remless Otedamako struggled to stay standing. She looked up just as Rodan inexplicably flickered behind him, both Primal Swords crossed in his low crouch. Otedamako whirled, hands filled with throwing knives. Rodan turned his head just the slightest bit to glance back at her as he raised his swords up to reveal them wet with some strange, greenish fluid.

"_Velocity Slash._"

Otedamako's inhuman eyes widened as that same monstrous blood trailed down her pretty young face. Her eyes glazed over and the knives fell to the ground still clutched tightly in her hands. She stood disarmed in the most literal sense before she fell to the ground in pieces too numerous to count. A black shadow appeared where pieces of a corpse once lay, the symbol of the Dead Moon sparkling at its brow before it faded away into oblivion.

Rodan rose to his full height and regarded his bloodless swords for a moment before turning a pitying gaze towards Tigers-Eye.

"Aren't you a clever beast to pick such a place to make a trap." Rodan spared a slow look-over of the area. "Nice, wide space… no trees or low overhands. The perfect place to try and catch a flyer… Still, I don't know what you were planning on using to catch the thing. Whatever it was, it ain't gonna work."

"What…?" Tigers-Eye's eyes narrowed. "_WHAT?_"

"That horse, whatever it is, is not of this world, and wherever you and your lot crawled out of, it ain't of the same place as the horse. Whatever you might have used wouldn't have held it, not for long at any rate. So I guess there's only one thing left to do." A burst of unaided speed and the ground was gouged deep by Rodan's swords. Cursing, he glanced up just in time to see Tigers-Eye's portal disappear in a puff of smoke.

"Che… Coward." Rodan replaced his swords, now bladeless, to his belt before he turned to regard the two Senshi who were still lying on the ground, too afraid or perhaps too stunned to really try and get up. "Oh isn't this an inspiring sight. Get up before you embarrass yourselves further."

With her ears still ringing, Sailor Moon didn't quite hear Rodan's scathing words but Sailor Mini-Moon could and jumped to her feet to give the Kamen Rider a piece of her mind. "Hey—!"

"Save it for someone who actually gives a shit." Rodan interrupted. "You girls might be rookies but you can handle yourselves, at least when that horse comes into play, which reminds me…" Sailor Mini-Moon flinched back as the air suddenly became heavy and hard to breathe as Rodan glared at her beneath his helmet. "Try to make the _attempt_ of living up to your reputations why don't you? Recognize a trap before you go and risk your friend's life again cause next time, I or the others might not be around to look after your pet pony." Rodan turned ready to leave in a burst of mach speed when Sailor Mini Moon called out to him.

"Others? There are other Kamen Riders besides you and Gojira?"

Rodan paused and bit back a curse that would likely have both girls blushing to the roots of their odd-shaped hair. He kept his back to them as he answered, "I will tell you only this: However many of us there are, it doesn't concern you because frankly, you don't really concern us." A small lie burying the truth but that's just how he was regardless of Gojira's orders.

"How can we trust you then?" asked Sailor Moon, now standing beside her young ward. "If Kamen Riders really feel that way then why do you bother helping us?"

This time, Rodan turned to meet the eyes of the two Sailor Scouts, though his own eyes were hidden away beneath his azure-colored faceplate. "Because once upon a time, we had that same sickeningly sweet optimism your lot seems to have in regards to this world. It might not seem much to you but for the likes of us, someone with such faith in themselves and the people they would die to protect… it's worth protecting." A burst of power from the jet-boosters on his back and Rodan was gone, the boom of mach-speed echoing like thunder on the horizon.

* * *

**On the next ride...**

"_The Shield's Defense_"


End file.
